The Clever Object presents a multidisciplinary exploration of the ways objects materialise, embody, or negotiate various forms of intelligence, revealing its use as an analytic tool of art-historical interpretation.

• Presents an original theory (“the clever object”) that draws on contributions from a variety of fields, including history of art, anthropology, philosophy of science, and design history
• Features interviews with two contemporary artists
• Advances a theoretical conversation by combining historical contributions (from medieval/early modern) with contemporary perspectives
• Represents the results of a project developed from an intensive research seminar in which all contributors participated and developed their work in evolving dialogue

Matthew C. Hunter is Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University. He is author of Wicked Intelligence: Visual Art and the Science of Experiment in Restoration London (2013) and co-editor of Beyond Mimesis and Convention: Representation in Art and Science (2010).

Francesco Lucchini is a Psychoanalytic Training Candidate at the C. G. Jung Institut, Zurich. He is also an art historian and theorist with an interest in the relationship between objects and ideas, thinking and things.